October 16, 2007

QUEBEC Shares in Junex (TSXV:JNX) rose briefly Tuesday after drilling of its Paspebiac well in Quebec‘s Appalachian basin encountered natural gas.

On the TSX Venture Exchange, Junex stock rose 10 cents to $1.10 on trading of about 56,000 shares, before easing back to close at $1.01, a more modest gain of one per cent.

A “more aggressive” exploration program is planned, the Quebec City-based company said in a release.

Drilling of well reached a total depth of 1,800 metres, encountering natural gas from 1,395 metres down. In addition, oil indications have been observed in sandstone from 1,630 metres.

Junex said it decided to stop the drilling at 1,800 metres because of the high deviation rate of the well and technical problems that could have been caused by deepening the well.

“Considering the hydrocarbon indications met, we would have preferred to deepen the well down to at least 2,000 metres in order to see if an oil window was present but, despite these technical difficulties, we are very satisfied with the geological results of the well,” company president Jean-Yves Lavoie said.

He said the results so far “seem to prove that the Baie-des-Chaleurs basin is a great prospect for the oil and gas. It now opens a new door for a more aggressive exploration program of a new sedimentary basin.”

Source: http://www.oilweek.com/news.asp?ID=11929